42 UNCONSCIOUS SELECTION. [Chap. I. 



become blended together by crossing, may plainly be 

 recognised in the increased size and beauty which 

 we now see in the varieties of the heartsease, rose, 

 pelargonium, dahlia, and other plants, when compared 

 with the older varieties or with their parent-stocks. 

 Xo one would ever expect to get a first-rate heartsease 

 or dahlia from the seed of a wild plant. Xo one would 

 expect to raise a first-rate melting pear from the seed of 

 the wild pear, though he might succeed from a poor 

 seedling growing wild, if it had come from a garden- 

 stock. The pear though cultivated in classical times, 

 appears, from Pliny's description, to have been a fruit 

 of very inferior quality. I have seen great surprise 

 expressed in horticultural works at the wonderful skill 

 of gardeners, in having produced such splendid results 

 from such poor materials ; but the art has been simple, 

 and, as far as the final result is concerned, has been 

 followed almost unconsciously. It has consisted in 

 always cultivating the best known variety, sowing its 

 seeds, and, when a slightly better variety chanced to 

 appear, selecting it, and so onwards. But the gardeners 

 of the classical period, who cultivated the best pears 

 which they could procure, never thought what splendid 

 fruit we should eat ; though we owe our excellent fruit 

 in some small degree, to their having naturally chosen 

 and preserved the best varieties they could anywhere 

 find. 



A large amount of change, thus slowly and un- 

 consciously accumulated, explains, as I believe, the 

 well-known fact, that in a number of cases we cannot 

 recognise, and therefore do not know, the wild parent- 

 stocks of the plants which have been longest cultivated 

 in our flower and kitchen gardens. If it has taken 



